Though Arcturus Mengsk had left Sarah Kerrigan for dead, the zerg were more pragmatic than he could have imagined. Intrigued by her psionic abilities, the zerg swarm brought Kerrigan to magma-covered Char, where she was slowly mutated by the zerg’s guiding intelligence, the Overmind, into the Queen of Blades, the first zerg-infested being to retain autonomous thought.
Kerrigan’s slumbering mind called desperately across space in search of aid – and Jim Raynor, still reeling from Tarsonis, led ex-Sons of Korhal (“Raynor’s Raiders”) to Char to find her.
Kerrigan’s call summoned more than just the Raiders; protoss forces, led by the Executor Tassadar, also converged on Char. Tassadar had fought to avoid purifying zerg-infested Mar Sara, but he’d been overruled by the Conclave, the protoss civilian government, who felt that containing the zerg was worth any loss of terran life.
Another group of protoss – under the command of Prelate Zeratul – was also summoned to Char by Kerrigan’s psionics. This sect of Dark Templar (protoss who forsook the Khala) had long been adversaries of their Khalai cousins – but, on Char, the protoss were united in their desire to destroy the zerg. Raynor’s Raiders attempted to free Kerrigan, but she emerged from her cocoon and scattered the protoss and terran invaders.
Stranded on Char, Tassadar and Raynor distracted the Queen of Blades while Zeratul slew the cerebrate Zasz, a controlling intelligence second only to the Overmind in its ability to direct the swarm. Their victory was short-lived – by killing Zasz with his psionic powers, Zeratul inadvertently allowed the zerg to learn the location of Aiur, home planet of the protoss.
The zerg surged to Aiur as one, seeking to perfect their race by consuming the protoss and integrating their genes into the swarm. Aiur was blanketed in alien spores, wings and teeth, and the Overmind embedded itself in the home world of the mightiest civilization in the sector.
